Dole Concedes Wage Increase Will Win Vote

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: April 22, 1996

WASHINGTON, April 21—
Bowing to political reality, Bob Dole, who has strongly opposed increasing the minimum wage, said today that he expected the Senate to pass an increase but refused to say how he would vote.

While being asked repeatedly on the CBS News program "Face the Nation" whether he would support raising the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour from $4.25 an hour, Mr. Dole acknowledged for the first time that the increase appeared inevitable. "Will there be an increase? I assume there will. The House has already indicated they're going to pass the minimum wage."

His concession came after he repeatedly sidestepped the question of whether he would support a raise. Subsequently, he said: "What we'll try to do, if there is an increase, is to package it with some other things," mentioning other measures that the Democrats oppose, like tax cuts, or as part of a budget agreement, thereby dooming any increase.

Other measures he might link the wage with, he said, include proposals allowing for new rules for employees who work part-time, or for compensatory time off in lieu of being paid overtime. He acknowledged that unions "aren't crazy about" these ideas. Speaker Newt Gingrich, appearing later on CNN's "Late Edition," endorsed Mr. Dole's concept of packaging the wage bill with other measures.

For the last several weeks, Mr. Dole has battled the Democratic initiative raising the minimum wage over two years, saying it would cost businesses too many jobs, even as House Republicans have endorsed the measure. President Clinton is eager to sign the bill, which would be the first increase since 1990 when Democrats controlled Congress and the wage was raised from $3.35 an hour to $4.25 over two years under President Bush. In the past Mr. Dole has twice voted to increase it, and today he made arguments both for and against doing so.

In his answers today, Mr. Dole steeped himself in the legislative parlance that his aides have urged him to avoid, responding to the wage question at one point by saying, "But our view is, maybe file cloture on the immigration bill."

The Clinton Administration reacted to Mr. Dole's comments by calling on Mr. Dole to schedule a simple yes-or-no vote on the wage increase without linking other measures to it.

Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the President's national economic adviser, said in a statement that with each day of delay, "the real value of the minimum wage moves closer and closer to a 40-year low."

The Administration also took issue with Mr. Dole's contention today that President Clinton himself had opposed increasing the minimum wage, a statement that George Stephanopoulos, an adviser to the President, said was "flat-out not true." Clarkson Hine, a spokesman for Mr. Dole, said the statement was based on a quote by Mr. Clinton in a Time magazine article. Mr. Stephanopoulos questioned the Time article and said there was no transcript or record of Mr. Clinton's ever having said he opposed the measure.

Mr. Dole's opposition to an increase in the minimum wage comes at a time when polls show that more than 80 percent of Americans favor a raise. And support by 20 House Republicans and eight Senate Republicans for the Democratic measure increases the pressure on him to capitulate.

Today's interview again highlighted Mr. Dole's increasing challenge to hold two jobs -- as Presidential candidate, who needs to appeal to a broad segment of the population, and as majority leader, who must work out compromises with numerous factions, even if it means subverting his own position.

Mr. Dole is campaigning on his record as a leader in Congress, as "a doer, not a talker," but many analysts concluded last week that Democrats have out-maneuvered him on the wage bill. Today he upbraided the 20 House Republicans whose support for the raise tipped the balance in the House last week in favor of the bill's approval.

"We were somewhat blindsided by a group of House Republicans, which we hope we can prevent in the future," he said.

But when asked if he was rethinking his plan to continue as majority leader while running for President, he said, "Not really." Instead, Mr. Dole said today that he had had "a pretty good week" and dismissed the gloating of Democrats on the Senate floor over his setbacks as "inside baseball" that "doesn't resonate outside the Beltway."

While he trails Mr. Clinton in national polls by at least 15 points, Mr. Dole was especially caustic in his response to Republican concerns that he will lose the November election. When told that William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, wrote that Mr. Dole might lose badly, Mr. Dole said acidly, "So who is Bill Kristol? What has he done?" Mr. Kristol, a prominent Republican commentator, was chief of staff for former Vice President Dan Quayle, but Mr. Dole identified him as the manager of Alan Keyes's failed 1992 campaign for the Senate from Maryland. "I don't look upon him as anybody who really understands politics," Mr. Dole said of Mr. Kristol.

On "Late Edition," Mr. Gingrich was asked to respond to Mr. Kristol's arguments that Mr. Dole was not articulate enough to beat President Clinton. The Speaker said Americans did not want a talk-show host for President, adding, "Dole is at least as articulate as Dwight Eisenhower."

On another matter, Mr. Dole said on "Face the Nation" that he would keep an anti-abortion plank in the Republican Party platform. "We're going to have some recognition in the plank that we support the pro-life position, no question about it," he said.

Mr. Dole also said that a report in today's Kansas City Star that his Presidential campaign had received thousands of dollars in illegal contributions from workers at a Massachusetts sporting-goods company should be investigated.

The company, Aqua-Leisure Industries, is run by Simon C. Fireman, a national vice chairman of finance for Mr. Dole's campaign. Three employees told The Star that some workers were handed stacks of $100 bills and told to return with checks made out to "Dole for President." Federal rules prohibit companies from paying people to make contributions and from giving money in someone else's name.